"This, then is our desert:
to live facing despair,
but not to consent.
To trample it down under hope in the Cross.
To wage war against despair unceasingly.
That war is our wilderness.
If we wage it courageously,
we will find Christ at our side.
If we cannot face it,
we will never find him."

Monday, 7 January 2013

2013 - 'all godly quietness?' - I don't think so...

A few interesting links to comment over the last few days.In an article for The Spectator about issues of 'gender' (sic) and homosexuality in the Church of England, Melanie McDonagh [here] comments about the possible effect equalities legislation is already having on the internal conduct of ecclesial bodies. She also argues, on the surface quite logically, that women bishops and gay bishops are two different issues. Not quite. Distinct they may be, related they most definitely are, as part of the liberal programme to emasculate the Church in the face of contemporary western culture's onslaught upon revealed religion and, ultimately, the whole concept of transcendence.The Archbishop of Kenya (FCA / GAFCON Primates' Chairman) condemns the latest stealthy move by the C of E's bishops to change Christian moral theology [here] He 'gets' the vital issue:

"...Yet it is a great sadness that before the New Year has hardly begun, the life of the Anglican Communion has yet again been clouded by compromise with the secular preoccupations of the West.The decision by the Church of England’s House of Bishops, just announced, that clergy in Civil Partnerships can be eligible to serve as bishops will create further confusion about Anglican moral teaching and make restoring unity to the Communion an even greater challenge..."

In, of course, The Guardian's epically lunatic 'Comment is Free' section [which always tempts the question: 'yes, but for how much longer if you people get your way?'] Canon Giles Fraser - who can doubt any longer that he is turning into, in Eccles and Bosco's phrase, this generation's 'comedy vicar' - argues, quixotically even for him, in favour of the morality of episcopal duplicity [here] Again, one might say they don't need any further encouragement...On the subject of media parsons, this is Ancient Briton's typically trenchant take on the new éminence grise of the Church in Wales, Bishop Richard Lord Harries of Pentregarth and his recent exhortations to Anglicans to show trust. Irony awareness training, anyone...?And speaking of begging the question, the recent viral YouTube video 'Ordain a Lady' was rather spoilt for me by a) the singer's inability to pronounce 'Lisieux' and (b) the instruction, 'Don't listen to St Paul.' - which, added together, sums up the problem rather succinctly, n'est-ce pas?